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New computer won't recognize external HD

still_life

Posted 14 May 2005 - 08:27 PM

still_life

New Member

Member

5 posts

I just got a new computer (it has Windows XP w/SP2), and it won't recognize my 80GB Maxtor external HD. I plugged in my old computer with XP and it worked fine on there. The external isn't in My Computer or Disk Management.

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austin_o

Posted 15 May 2005 - 06:49 AM

austin_o

Retired Staff

Retired Staff

2,089 posts

You need to go into disk management and mount the drive. It isnt hard to do...just not always plug and play like the vendor says. Go to my computer, right click, manage, disk drives. You should be able to figure it out from there. I have 4 such devices and had to do this each time with XP. My W2K systems find the drive without doing this.

still_life

Posted 15 May 2005 - 04:44 PM

still_life

New Member

Topic Starter

Member

5 posts

I've been there. Disk Management doesn't even recognize the drive. All it sees is the main hard drive, the D drive, and the burner and CD-Rom. Then there are these 4 removable disks that are not my external.

Supergeek.dcse

Posted 15 May 2005 - 07:55 PM

fleamailman

Posted 16 May 2005 - 12:36 PM

fleamailman

Member 2k

Member

2,383 posts

Is your harddrive only powered from the USB slot, because sometimes the slots in front of the fixed computer don't have enough power to support it, try either using a slightly shorter USB cable or rear usb port or finding a cable that looks like a snake's tonge, in fact we have this problem often with laptops.

still_life

Posted 16 May 2005 - 08:19 PM

"Is this a USB drive? If so, check that your USB controller is enabled & installed correctly. Then try a different USB device, if you have one, to test the port with."

Yeah it's USB. The USB is fine. I plugged my mouse in there and it works.

"removable disks are your ext drive but it cant do any thing with untill you tell it"

Why are there 4 of them, and what am I supposed to tell it?

"Is your harddrive only powered from the USB slot, because sometimes the slots in front of the fixed computer don't have enough power to support it, try either using a slightly shorter USB cable or rear usb port or finding a cable that looks like a snake's tonge, in fact we have this problem often with laptops."